Toronto Mayor Rob Ford speaks to his Don Bosco Eagles team during the Metro Bowl quarter-final at Birchmount Park in Toronto in 2012. Ford, who loved football, spent many years coaching amateur football. On Wednesday, Toronto's city council rejected naming a stadium for him.

Toronto Mayor Rob Ford speaks to his Don Bosco Eagles team during the Metro Bowl quarter-final at Birchmount Park in Toronto in 2012. Ford, who loved football, spent many years coaching amateur football. On Wednesday, Toronto's city council rejected naming a stadium for him.
Photo Credit: CP Photo / Christopher Drost

Toronto city council rejects naming stadium for Rob Ford

Rob Ford, who gained world-wide notoriety in 2013 when as mayor of Toronto he became embroiled in a substance scandal and refused to step down, will not have a football stadium named after him–at least for now.

Toronto’s city council voted 24-11 Wednesday against renaming the Centennial Park Stadium in the western Etobicoke section of the city Centennial Park Rob Ford Memorial Stadium, an idea put forth last week by the current mayor, John Tory.

The decision was criticized by Ford’s brother, Doug, who said he was “very disappointed but not surprised.”

“We could name our backyard after Rob and they’d try to shoot it down,” Doug Ford added.

Rob Ford, a long-time football fan and some-time coach, was elected Toronto mayor in 2010 and died of cancer at the age of 46 in March, 2016.

Following his election, his life spiralled down hill into scandal after his substance abuse problems became public.

He managed to briefly weather a storm of criticism for showing up at public events intoxicated, but when videos of him smoking crack cocaine with gang members surfaced, he hit rock bottom.

It was then that he gained world-wide fame, especially in the United States where late-night television hosts had a field day delivering jokes about him.

After he refused to step down as mayor, city council stripped him of most of his powers in November, 2013.

Diagnosed with cancer in 2014, Ford called off a run for a second term as mayor and died a little more than two years later.

With files from CBC, CP, Toronto Star

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